
Class _Jl_Uia^ 



lir^tf 



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ij 



EULOGIES 



ON 



^VADSWORTH AND PORTER. 



'Tlie Oentuiy." 



PROCEEDINGS 



CENTURY ASSOCIATION 



IN HONOR OF THE MEMORY OF 



BRIG.-GEK JAMES S. WADSWORTH 

AND 

COLONEL PETER A. PORTER; 



-• V 



THE EULOGIES 

READ BY 

WILLIAM J. HOPPIN AND FREDERIC S. COZZENS. 
December 3, 1864. 



NEW YORK: 
D. VAX NOSTRAND, 192 BROADWAY. 

M DCCC LXV. 



-at 



./ 



A L V R I) , PRINTER. 



PROCEEDi:^GS 



6C 



THE CENTUR T." 



During the summer of 1864, the Century Association 
appointed committees to report resolutions at the Novem- 
ber meeting, expressive of tlie respect cherished by the 
Association for tlie memory of the late General Wads- 
worth and Colonel Porter. 

The first of these committees consisted of the following 
gentlemen : 



George Bancroft, 
Charles P. Daly, 
Francis Lieber, 
William M. Evarts, 
Daniel Huntington, 
William C. Bryant, 



John Jay, 
James W. Beekman, 
John J. Astor, 
Benjamin R. Winthrop, 
George T. Strong, and 
William J. IIoppin. 



This committee afterwards appointed Mr. Evarts to pre- 
pare the resolutions, and Mr. Hoppin to read an account 
of the life and services of Greneral Wadsworth. 



The second committee included the foUomng gentle- 
men : 

John Van Buren, Daniel Huntington, 

Lewis Rutherford, Joseph H. Choate, 

Charles II. Ogden, William E. Curtis, ami 

A. Rodney Macdonough. 

Mr. Macdonough was chosen by them to prepare the 
resohitions, and Mr. Frederic S. Cozzens to read a paper 
upon the public life and character of Colonel Porter. 

The celebration of Mr. Bryant's birthday having been 
appointed for the November meeting, it was decided to 
postpone the reports of these committees until the first 
Saturday in December. 

On that evening, after the regular business of the Asso- 
ciation had been transacted, Mr. Hoppin read a Eulogy 
upon General Wadsworth ; upon the conclusion of which 
Mr. Evarts offered the following resolutions, which were 
unanimously adopted, and ordered to be entered on the 
minutes : 

Resolved, That in the death of General Wadsworth society has lost 
one of its brio-htest ornaments, the State of New York one of its most 
eminent citizens, and the country one of its greatest patriots and bravest 
soldiers. 

Resolved, That the most generons impulses of public spirit and of 
ardent patriotism inspired the prompt and persistent resohilion with 
which General Wadsworth forsook every attraction and enjoyment of 
private life with which his wealth and his family, his talents and his 
education surrounded him, and from the first outbreak of the Rebellion 
devoted himself, his lucans, his influence, his labors, to the support of 
his Government, and at last laid down his life a sacrifice to the welfare, 
the safety, the honor of his country. 



Resolved, That the manner of his death, in the front of battle, at tlie 
liead of liis command, in the severest conflict of tlie war, was an illus- 
trious close of a noble life ; and notwithstanding the great public loss 
and the manifold private griefs which attend his death, we must yet 
pronounce a life thus lived, a life thus closed, complete, heroic, for- 
tunate. 

Resolved, That we beg to offer a sincere and respectful sympathy, in 
their nearer sorrow and deeper aflSiiction, to the family of General 
Wadsworth, and that we earnestly ask the Government that it will 
honor his memory by permitting one of the forts of our harbor to bear 
and commemorate his heroic name. 

Mr. Frederic S. Cozzens then read a Eulogy upon the 
life and services of Colonel Peter A. Porter ; after which, 
Mr. Macdonough, from the committee charged with that 
duty, presented the following resolutions, which were also 
adopted unanimously, and ordered to he entered upon the 
minutes of the Association : 

Resolved, That *' The Century" deplores, with deep and lasting grief, 
the death upon the battle-field of tlieir late loved and honored asso- 
ciate, Colonel Peter A. Porter. 

Resolved, That we search the annals of this war in vain for a kinder 
heart, a brighter wit, a purer soul, inspiring a life of culture more 
finished and purposes more noble, and welcoming a more triumphant 
martyrdom of all-sacrificing patriotism. 

Resolved, That the character of Colonel Porter — tender and steadfast 
as he was in all home and friendly relations — faithful and intelligent in 
devotion to the public civil service — modest, humane, and gallant in 
the career of arms — crowning the graces and accomplishments of the 
scholar's life with the truest glories of the soldier's, and the genuine 
faith and practice of the Christian's, burnishes the bright name which 
he inherited, and stamps it high on the Golden Book of Americans 
made noble by worth and valor. 



6 

Resolved, That the personal sorrow with which "The Century"' laments 
the loss of one endeared to them by so many years of genial compan- 
ionship, is deepened by the sense that in him the Nation has lost a man 
of a type it can ill spare ; and that the years so rich in promise would 
have borne, had they matured, ripe fruits of wisdom in council and of 
courage and resource in action, priceless to his country in that new era, 
for the dawn of which he gave his hopes, his labors, and his life. 

Afterwards, on motion of Mr. Jolm H. Gonrlie, it was 

Resolved, That " The Century" presents its acknowledgments to Mr. 
Iloppin and to Mr. Cozzens, for the feeling and elegant manner in 
which they have prepared the memorials of its esteem for its late asso- 
ciates ; that the Eulogies just delivered be printed under the direction 
of the Board of Management, together with the Resolutions, the 
expense of printing to be defrayed by subscription, and that the two 
Committees be discharged, with thanks. 

On motion of Dr. Lieber, it was 

Resolved, That the committee of which Mr. Evarts is chairman com- 
municate with the War Department with reference to naming a fort in 
our harbor after General Wadsworth. 



MR. HOPPIN'S 



EULOGY 



GENERAL WADSWORTH. 



Mr. President and Brothers of " The Century " — 

I HAVE been honored by my associates upon the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements by a request to write an account 
of the life and services of our friend and fellow-member, 
the late General Wadsworth. It would have been better, 
perhaps, if the performance of this dnty had been in- 
trusted to some one who enjoyed more intimate personal 
relations with him than I did, and who might have enli- 
vened his memorial with anecdotes and recollections 
which a confidential friendship alone could supply. But 
it is, after all, with the main facts of Wadsworth' s life 
that we are chiefly concerned, and if I can recite these in 
such a way as to arouse in your hearts the respect and 
admiration which they have excited in my own, I shall 
feel that I am not entirely unworthy of the position to 
which I have been assigned. It will be enough for me 
to show, in the simplest words, his high idea of patriotic 
duty, his unfaltering devotion to it, and the extraordinary 
sacriflces he made in its pursuit. 



10 

James Samuel Wadswortli was boiii at Cleueseo on the 
8()tli day of October, 1807. He was the eldest son of 
James Wadswortli, who had emigrated from Durham, in 
Connecticut, and whose family was among the most 
ancient and respectable in that State. It is said that one 
of his ancestors was that sturdy Puritan, Joseph Wads- 
worth, the Captain of the train-bands who concealed the 
precious Cliarter which Charles II. had given to the Col- 
ony, in the famous oak at Hartford, in defiance of the 
authority of the tyrant Andross ; and who, afterwards, 
when another intruding Governor, Colonel Fletcher, of 
New York, attempted to exercise illegal rule over the 
Connecticut Militia, caused his drums to beat and drown 
the reading of the Royal Commission, saying to Fletcher, 
"If I am interrupted, I will make the daylight shine 
through your body." 

James Wadswortli, of Durham, and his brother Wil- 
liam, the father and uncle of our friend, made their way 
to the banks of the Genesee in the year 1790, wlien that 
whole region was a rude wilderness, from which the 
Indians had scarcely been expelled. They opened their 
path, in some places, by their own axes, and established 
themselves at a point called "Big Tree," which is now 
the village of Geneseo. They were the agents of many 
of the proprietors, whose lands they cleared and brought 
into market; and they also, in process of time, became 



11 

themselves the most extensive and wealthy landholders 
of that neighborhood. Mr. Lewis F. Allen, to whose excel- 
lent Memorial of General Wadswortli I am indebted for 
some of the information contained in this paper, intimates 
that they owed this success to the happy union of their 
own personal qualities. William, who had a more stout 
and hardy nature than his brother, carried on all the out- 
of-door operations, while James, who had received an 
excellent education at the East, and acquired habits of 
system and order, managed the finances, entertained the 
guests, and, by his sound judgment and fine taste, con- 
tributed not only to the material prosperity, but to the 
picturesque beauty of that famous valley. He had been 
graduated at Yale College, and he took into the wild 
country to which he emigrated a love for letters and 
refined social intercourse which made it blossom early 
with the sweet fiowers of mental and moral culture. 
After the population had sufficiently increased, he caused 
tracts upon the subject of popular education to be printed 
and circulated at his own expense ; he offered premiums 
to the towns which should first establish school libraries ; 
he procured the passage of the school library law in 1808 ; 
he suggested the establishment of Normal Schools in 
1811 ; he founded and endowed a library and system of 
lectures at Geneseo ; and he provided that in all his sales 
a tract of one hundred and twenty-five acre's in every 



12 

township slioiild be reserved for a cliurcli, and as mucli 
more for a school. AVhen he died, in 1844, his gifts to 
tlie cause of Education alone had exceeded the sum of 
ninety thousand dollars. 

His wife, and the mother of our friend, a most intelli- 
gent and amiable woman, was one of the Walcotts, of 
Windsor, in Connecticut, a family of importance in the 
history of that State. 

This was the stock from Avhich Gfeneral Wadsworth 
sprung, and he proved his descent hy the intrepidity and 
vigor of his character, as well as by that frank courtesy 
of manners and princely generosity which always distin- 
guished liim. 

He received the first rudiments of his education at 
the common schools of Geneseo, although much of his 
youth must have been given to those rough employ- 
ments in the open air which the border-life of those 
days required, even of the sons of rich fathers. Our 
esteemed friend and associate, Henry L. Pierson, remem- 
bers him well when he was a boy of twelve or thirteen, 
and made a visit to New York in company with his 
Uncle William. They liad come all the way on horse- 
back, driving a herd of cattle, and Wadsworth was then 
a hardy, vigorous stripling, intelligent, manly, and self- 
possessed. 

He entered Hamilton College, near Vtica ; but after a 



sliort residence there, went to Harvard, where lie re- 
mained a longer time, bnt was never graduated. About 
the year 1829 he became a student of law at Yale, where 
he stayed a few months, and then continued his course 
with Mr. Webster, at Boston, and finished it in the office 
of McKeon & Deniston, at Albany. He was, in due time, 
called to the bar, but he never practised law as a profes- 
sion. He preferred to assist his father in the care of the 
family estate, which had been increased by the property 
devised by his Uncle William, who died a bachelor, in 
1833. 

Wads worth was married about this time to Miss 
Wharton, of Philadelphia, a lady whose charms of mind 
and person are so well known and so distinguished that I 
may be pardoned for alluding to them here. They went 
abroad soon after their marriage, and upon his return 
Wadsworth applied himself with great spirit and success 
to agricultural affairs. In 1842, he was elected President 
of the State Society, and he always manifested a lively 
interest in its prosperity. He repeatedly took prizes from 
this and the County Society for the excellence of his farm 
stock. 

In 1844, he had the misfortune to lose his most wortli}^ 
father, and was thus left in sole charge of the greater part 
of the property, embracing, in addition to his own share, 
the estates of his two sisters. 



14 

He continued to make G-eneseo his chief residence, and 
was induced, both by self-interest and affection, to pro- 
mote its prosperity by every means in his power. Among 
other generous acts, he caused the works which supply the 
village with water to be constructed. He was intending 
to erect a building there for the purposes of the literary 
institution which his father had founded, when the break- 
ing out of the war prevented the execution of the project, 
which, however, he provided for in his will. 

He made another visit to Europe, with his family, in 
1854 ; and shortly after his return purchased a house in 
Sixteenth street, in this city, which he made his perma- 
nent town residence. 

On the 1st of March, 1856, he was elected a member of 
our Association, upon the nomination of Frederic S. 
Cozzens. He was not a very frequent visitor at the Club, 
although his absence was occasioned by no want of sym- 
pathy in our objects or regard for our members. 

I now approach the time when Wadsworth's name 
became interwoven with the history of the Nation. Until 
now he had been chiefly known as a wealthy land- 
holder—a hospitable country gentleman — a leading agri- 
culturist. But the day had come which was to test the 
metal of every man's character. None came out of the 
furnace purer and brighter than his. 

Let me attempt to describe liim as those who knew 



15 

him best reineiiiber him to have been at that time. And 
let me first speak of his home in Geneseo, for this is 
necessary, that we may understand the pnrity of his 
motives, the greatness of his sacrifices, and the value of 
his example. 

His country house, as it has been described to me by 
one of our most honored landscape artists, was large, but 
not ostentatious — embosomed in trees, and commanding, 
on its western side, a prospect of the beautiful valley of 
the Genesee, which, with its glimpses of sparkling water, 
its cultivated fields shut in by rich masses of foliage, and 
its scattered groups of oaks and elms, partook of the 
character of an English landscape, and reminded our 
artist friend of the famous view of the valley of the 
Thames from Richmond Hill. All these trees were parts 
of the primeval forest, which were preserved by the 
pioneer who first opened these solitudes, and had been 
protected since with pride and reverence by his descend- 
ants. ISTear the mansion was the home-farm of two thou- 
sand acres, which received the special attention of Wads- 
worth, and was well stocked with flocks and herds. 
Beyond and around, in Livingston and the neighboring- 
counties, lay the leased lands of the estate, a domain, 
altogether, of fifteen thousand acres, and which, if re- 
garded as one tract, is as large as some German princi- 
pality. 



16 

I may not intrude upon the interior of the homestead, 
made charming by all that wealth, and taste, and affection 
conld collect — books, pictures, mnsic — the conversation 
of intelligent guests, and the exercise of graceful and 
refined hospitalit3^ Here Wadsworth lived, in the midst 
of numerous, contented, and thriving tenants, two-thirds 
of whom, or their fathers, had also been the tenants of 
the first James Wadsworth, and thus proved, by their 
continuing the relation, the justice and liberality of their 
landlords. 

I will not attempt to give a minute analysis of the 
character of our friend, but only to describe some of its 
more striking qualities. One of these seems to me to 
have been his direct, straightforward manliness. He 
never knew fear himself, and he despised all cowards. 
He was also eminently true and just. He hated all 
shams, and loved whatever w^as open, frank, and gen- 
uine. Perhaps he might have seemed to some a little 
unsympathetic — a little wanting in tenderness. But this 
arose from absent-mindedness or the preoccupation of en- 
grossing business. There was an inner source of gentle- 
ness and sympathy in his nature which they discovered 
who knew him best, and saw him at times when the 
secret doors of the heart w^ere unlocked. That he was 
thoroughly benevolent and generous is proved, not only 
by the alacrity and profusion Avith which he contributed 



17 

to the Irisli faiinne fund and otln^r jmhlir and splendid 
charities, but also by the readiness with ■which, when the 
crops failed, he constantly forgave the rent to those small 
farmers Avho paid in kind, and thns quietly abridged his 
OAvn income to the extent, sometimes, of tens of thousands 
of dollars, 

Wadsworth had excellent natural powers of mind, 
but little cultivation. His intellectual ability developed 
rapidly in the latter years of his life. He was an original 
thinker. His judgment was always clear and sound ; but 
he disliked the details of business and the petty cares of 
an office. He seized with great quickness the point of a 
law question, or any other matter which was the subject 
of his reading or conversation. He also was a capital 
judge of character, and had the art, whicli distinguishes 
many leading minds, of sifting the knowledge of those 
who engaged in discussions with him, by putting a few 
pointed questions. No one had more tact than he in 
talking with the farmers of his neighborhood. He rode 
about among them on his small pony in the most simple 
and unpretending manner, and his advice had always 
an important influence in forming and directing their 
opinions. 

He was entirely free from all false pride. He never, 
directly or indirectly, boasted of his wealth or his connec- 
tions. In his manners he was sim]>le, cordial, and unaf- 



18 

fected. Mr. Lotlirop Motley says of liim, in a letter 
which I have read, ' ' I have often thought and spoken of 
him as the trne, original type of the American gentleman 
— not the pale, washed-ont copy of the Enropean aristo- 
crat." In his dress and equipage he observed a sim- 
plicity which was almost Sjiartan. He had no trinkets 
or curiosities of the toilet. He was extremely temperate 
in eating and drinking, and despised all the epicureanism 
of the table. 

He was now in the floAver of his age. His hgure was 
tall, well proportioned, and firmly knit. The glance of 
his gray eye was keen and determined. His Roman 
features were well rounded, and his hair, which had 
become prematurely white, added to the nobility of his 
expression. 

Such is an imperfect, outline sketch of the man and of 
his home in Geneseo, as they appeared in the autumn of 
1860, when the great Conspiracy, which had for many 
years been plotting at the South to destroy the National 
Government, proceeded from seditious language to trea- 
sonable acts, and finally dared to inaugurate flagrant and 
detestable Civil War. James Wadsworth took at once 
the most open, manl}^, and decided stand on the side of 
the Union. From that moment till the day of his death 
he postponed all private affairs to public duties, and 
devoted his time, his thoughts, his wealtli, and all the 



19 

power wliicli his position gave him to the service of his 
country. To tliis he was impelled by his political princi- 
ples, no less than his personal character. He had come 
of old Federalist stock, and learned from his father to 
respect the Constitution and the National Government 
which the people had created under it. So long ago as 
1848 lie supported the Free Soil party, which had pro- 
posed his name as a District Elector, He was consistent 
and persevering afterwards in his efforts on the same 
side. In 1856 he received the nomination of State 
Elector from the Republicans, and now, in November, 
1860, he was chosen a District Elector for Lincoln and 
Hamlin, 

He owned immense tracts of lands and had numerous 
tenants, and this, to a superficial observer, might seem 
likely to have diverted his sympathies towards the 
Southern Slaveholders, He was also connected, by the 
marriage of one of his sisters, with a noble British family, 
and his associates and intimate friends had been chiefly 
formed among the wealthy classes and in circles where 
the fires of patriotism were burning very low, if they had 
not gone out altogether. Some of his closest friends were 
indeed representatives of the best Southern society — men 
possessing that refined and winning manner, the faint 
tradition of Huguenot politeness, wliich seems, in a few 
instances, to have survived the adverse influences that 



20 

surrounded it, and which has been nowhere more unduly 
praised tlian at the North. But notwithstanding all these 
hindrances, AVadsworth remained a true, brave, Northern 
Democrat. Mr. Lothrop Motley, in the letter from which 
I have already quoted, says of him : "He believed, hon- 
estly, frankly, and unhesitatingly in democracy, as the 
only possible government for our hemisphere, and as the 
inevitable tendency of the whole world, so far as it is 
able to shake off the fetters of former and present tyran- 
nies. He honored and believed in the people with his 
whole heart, and it is for this reason the people honored 
and believed in him.'' . . . "It has always seemed 
to me," Mr. Motley adds, "that he was the truest and 
most tlioi'oughly loyal American I ever knew ; and this, 
to my mind, is his highest eulogy, feeling as I do how 
immeasurably higher the political and intellectual level 
of America is than that of any other country in the 
world !" 

No other man than Wadsworth valued his fellow- 
beings more for the liigli qualities of mind and heart, 
and, I may add, strong right arms which God had given 
them, and less for their clothes, their trivial accomplish- 
ments, or the company they kept. No other man than 
he more thoroughly despised that counterfeit chivalry 
Avhose vow of mercy was satisfied by assaulti.ig unarmed 
men with swords and 2)istols, and of charity b}' squan- 



21 

flei'lno- iiKiiipy borrowed of othei's, and never to be re- 
paid. He liad opposed the extension of slavery in tlie 
territories, and he befriended the negro as he did any 
other unhapp3^ liuman being who needed his assistance. 
For this he Avas called by that name which seems to some 
persons the most opi)robrious which party ingenuity can 
invent — the name of ''Abolitionist." Perhaps the appli- 
cation of this name to him may add another to those 
examples in history, where that which was devised as 
the instrument of shame afterwards became the badge of 
immortal honor. Wadswoi-th saw with his clear eye that 
a deadly struggle had now begun between systems of 
society entirely repugnant to each other — between the 
civilized democracy of the nineteenth century and that 
ferocious s])irit of bastard feudalism which, strangely 
enough, has found a more congenial home on the banks 
of the Mississippi than it had ever enjo^'ed on the Neva 
or the Danube. No charms of social intercourse, no 
claims of private friendship, obscured the clearness of 
his vision on this point. He attributed at once to the 
Southern conspirators a spirit of determined aggression — 
a calculating, comprehensive treason, which Northern op- 
timists were at first reluctant to admit. He saw that the 
laws of population and the irresistible opinion of the 
world forbade them from delaying an enterprise which 
their mad ambition had long before planned, and that all 



22 

temporizing measures on our part would be idiotic and 
pusillanimous. 

Accordingly, in that Comedle Larnioyante, gotten up 
by crafty Virginia politicians,' and misnamed the Peace 
Conference, upon whose doors should have been written 
Claudian s words : 

^^ Mars gravior sub pate laid" 
Under the show of peace a sterner war hes hidden — 

in that assembl3% in which he took liis seat on the 8th of 
February, 1861, he wasted no time in speeches, but con- 
stantly voted against all measures that seemed to jeopard- 
ize the honor and independence of the loyal States. On 
the 17th of February, upon his motion, the delegation of 
New York virtually resolved to vote No upon the chief 
sections of the report of the committee w^hicli summed 
up the action of the Conference, and the State of New 
York was spared the mortification of assenting to over- 
tures which weakened the position of the North, while 
tliey failed to propitiate the Southern conspirators. 

For the time was now at hand when the action of 
deliberative bodies was to be of no account, and the 
safety of the Nation to depend upon military measures 
alone. Fort Sumter was attacked and captured. The 
soldiers of Massachusetts were assaulted in the streets of 
Baltimore. Tlie raih-oad communication with tlie capital 



2'S 

was interrnpted, and the supplies for tlie troops there 
were nearly cut off. In respect to this latter danger, the 
clear, practical mind of Wadsworth seized at once the 
difficulties of the situation, and devised the remedy. 
With great promptness and energy, he caused two ves- 
sels to be loaded at New York, on his own account, with 
provisions for the army, and accompanied them to Annap- 
olis, attending personally to their delivery. During that 
interval of great anxiety between the first demonstration 
of the enemy against Washington and the commencement 
of General McDowell's campaign, Wadsworth was in 
constant communication with Lieutenant-General Scott, 
and was employed by him in executing delicate and 
important commissions. But he was not content with 
the performance of duties which, however difficult and 
responsible, made his example less valuable than the 
more dangerous service of the field. He soon determined 
to enter upon this, notwithstandijig the sacrifices it in- 
volved. Let us remember that he was now considerably 
past the military age ; that his private affairs were numer- 
ous and engrossing ; that he was able to give wise counsel 
and large pecuniary aid to Government, and fulfil, in 
this way, every duty which the most exacting patriotism 
might be supposed to require. He had, as we have seen, 
a home made attractive by every thing which wealth and 
taste and the love of friends could supply. His children 



•24 

were just (^oiiiing into the active duties of life, and while 
they needed his careful supervision, their affection and 
high promise made the parting from tliem all the more 
difficult and trying. Wadsworth resisted all these temp- 
tations and rejected all these excuses. In June, 1861, he 
became a volunteer aid on the staff of General McDowell, 
and fouglit his first battle in the disastrous affair of Bull 
Run. His intimate friends declared, when they heard of 
his resolution to take military service, that this Avas 
equivalent to the sacrifice of his life. They knew his 
bravery was so impetuous that he Avould court every 
peril and exposure, and that he would never survive the 
war. These predictions, alas ! were too surely to be 
realized, but not until a later day. They were, indeed, 
very nearl37^ fulfilled at Bull Run. Nobody was more 
conspicuous than Wadsworth in every post of danger. 
He had a horse shot under him in his efforts to rally the 
panic-stricken troops. He seized the colors of the New 
York Fourteenth, and adjured that brave regiment to 
stand u}) for the old flag. He was one of the last to 
leave the field, and was most active in restoring order 
on the retreat, and in assisting, at Fairfax Court-House, 
to preserve the government property and to relieve the 
wounded. 

In the organization of the National Army, Governor 
Morgan, supposing he had a right to pr()i)ose the names 



of two Major-CTeiierals from this State, sent W^adswortlTy 
and Dix's to the President. We were entitli^d, however, 
to only one, and the grade was given to Cleneral Dix. 
Afterwards, in the summer of 1861, Wadsworth was made 
a Brigadier, 

Whatever may be the judgment of intelligent critics 
upon the expediency of taking generals from civil life, 
and however unsatisfactory they may consider the rea- 
sons which influence the Government in making such 
appointments, it is admitted by all that Wadsworth re- 
ceived his commission with diffidence, and that his 
genius, which was essentially military, coupled with his 
attention to his duties, soon made him an efficient 
officer. His brigade was attached to the Army of the 
Potomac, and stationed in the advance, near Upton's 
Hill. He lay tliere during the autumn of 1861 and the 
succeeding winter, impatient at the delay of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief in moving upon Manassas, and always 
insisting upon what has since been proved to be true, 
that the enemy' s force there was for a long time too weak 
to resist any serious attack upon it, if we had made 
one. 

In March, 1862, General Wadsworth was appointed 
Military Governor of Washington, and for nine months 
discharged the very delicate and responsible duties of 
that office with great satisfaction to the Government. A 



1!6 

competent writer, who served under hhn, says, that 
"while he gave the citizens all the liberties consistent 
Avith public safety, he took vigorous measures against 
traitors, spies, blockade-runners, and kidnappers. He 
seized the slave-pen, discharged the captives, and perma- 
nently established the rule that no negro should be taken 
out of the District of Columbia, under color of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, without an examination on the part of the 
military authorities respecting the loyalty of the master." 
The same writer adds, that "great pains were taken by 
General Wadsworth to facilitate the change of these 
people from bondage to freedom. He organized a con- 
traband bureau, established permanent quarters, taught 
the poor blacks how to work for themselves, and made 
the confiscated goods of the blockade supply their wants. 
Amid political and military embarrassments, he suc- 
ceeded in pioneering the way to practical emancipation 
while commanding the fortiiications and twenty-four 
thousand troops." 

In the autumn of 1862, and while he was still in com- 
mand of Washington, he received the Union nomination 
for Governor of New York. This had been otfered to 
him, in 1848, by the Free-Soil Democrats, and again, in 
1856, by the Republicans, but he had declined it on 
both occasions. He now thought it to be his duty to 
accept the position, and went into tlie canvass, but Avas 



Zt 



defeated by Mi". Seymour hy a majorit}' of ten tlioiisand 
seven hundred and tifty-tAvo votes. 

After nine months of service at Washington, General 
Wadsworth applied to the Government for more active 
duty. They granted his request, and, in December, 1862, 
ordered him to report to Major-General Reynolds, then 
in command of the First Corps. General Reynolds gave 
him his First Division, and this he led, with great gal- 
lantry, at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. 

The experience of the last four years has proved the 
truth of the assertion of military men, that Wai' is a 
Science which must be studied like any other, and that 
civilians cannot be extemporized into generals. It must 
be confessed, however, that the genius of some laymen 
eminently fits them for command, and a campaign or 
two may supply the want of early professional study. 
As I have already stated, Wadsworth seems to have been 
one of these natural soldiers. He was very successful in 
gaining the love of his men. His high sense of justice 
and true republican respect for manliness, wherever he 
found it, soon convinced them that if they did their duty 
they should be rewarded. They knew, too, that he 
made tlieir comfort his constant study. These qualities 
endeared him greatly to his troops, and when, before 
the battle of Fredericksburg, he rode with his staff 
unexpectedly into the encampment of his old brigade. 



28 

the soldiers of all the four regiments rushed tumultu- 
ously towards him and made the skies ring with their 
shouts of welcome. 

But there was another and a better reason why his 
soldiers loved him, and also why he was always a 
reliable officer : he was so cool and collected under fire. 
"He had a habit," says an intelligent writer, who saw 
him at the front just before his death, "of riding about 
the foremost line, and even among his skirmishers, which 
somewhat unnecessaril}^ exposed his life. He knew very 
well how to handle his division, and. he knew how to 
hold a line of battle — how to order and lead a charge — 
how to do the plain work Avliich he liked best ; and at 
Grettysburg he showed how much a plucky, tenacious 
leader can do with a handful of troops in keeping back 
and making cautious an overwhelming force of the 
enemy. He was pertinacious ; did not like to give up 
or back out ; and was not a man safely to be pressed, 
even by a force much superior to his own." 

General Meade writes of him: "The moral eflfect of 
his example, his years and high social position, his dis- 
tinguished personal gallantry and daring bravery, all 
tended to place him in a most conspicuous position, and 
to give him an influence over the soldiers which few 
other men possess." 

And General Humphreys, General Meade's chief of 



29 

staff, in speaking of the qualities lie showed on the field 
on which he lost his life, writes: "In the two days of 
desperate fighting that followed onr crossing the Rapidan, 
he was conspicuous heyond all others for his gallantry — 
prompter than all others in leading his troops again and 
again into action. In all these combats he literally led 
his men, who, inspired by his heroic bearing, contin- 
ually renewed the contest, which, but for him, they 
would have yielded/' 

This is high praise, and from the most competent 
sources, to be given to a man who had never been under 
fire until he had passed his fifty-third year, and whose 
life had been occupied in quiet agricultural pursuits. 
It was the blood of the old Puritan Captain which tingled 
in his veins in those days of trial : better than that, it 
was the inextinguishable love of country^ — the rever- 
ence for Right and Truth — the inborn hatred of every 
thing false, and mean, and treacherous, which made him 
content to exchange the delights of such a home as I 
have attempted to describe for the unspeakable horrors 
of the battle-field. 

It may well be supposed that with qualities like these 
he was not allowed to remain inactive in the campaign 
which succeeded the battles of Fredericksburg and 
Chancellors ville. At Gettysburg he commanded the 
First Division of the First Corps until the fall of Gen- 



30 

eral Reynolds, when lie assumed charge of the corps. 
Before that, however, his division had received the 
brunt of the enemy's attack. It went into action at 
nine in the morning, and continued under fire until 
four in the afternoon, suffering heavier loss than any 
other in the army. He had several horses shot under 
liim, and he animated the fight everywhere by his noble 
presence. At the council of war held after the victory, 
Wadsworth, who, as the temporary connnander of a 
corps, had a seat at the board, with great modesty, but 
with decided earnestness, favored the pursuit of the 
enemy, l^ut his advice was overi-uled and Lee escaped. 
After General Grant was ordered to the Eastern 
Division, Wadsworth was constantly employed in assist- 
ing in the arrangements for the present campaign. Before 
it was undertaken, however, and about the beginning of 
the present year, he was sent upon special service to 
the Mississippi Valley, and made an extensive tour 
through the Western and Southwestern States. It was 
on the eve of his departure that he made to the pay- 
master from whom he had always drawn his pay, the 
remarkable declaration that he desired to have his ac- 
counts with Government kept by one and the same 
oiRcer, because it was his purpose, at the close of the 
war, to call for an accurate statement of all the money 
he should have received, and then to give it whatever 



81 ' 

might be tlie aiuouiit, to some permanent institution, 
founded for the relief of invalid soldiers. "This is the 
least invidious way,"" said he, "in which I can refuse 
pay for fighting for my country in her hour of danger." 

When General Grant commenced his present cam- 
paign, Wadsworth was placed in command of the Fourth 
Division of the Fifth Corps, which was composed of his 
old division of the First Corps, with the addition of the 
Third Brigade. He crossed the Rapidan on Wednesday, 
the 4th of May. On the 6th, the battle of the Wilderness 
was fought, in which our friend Avas mortally wounded. 
This event, and its attendant circumstances, are described 
in simple and touching language by his son. Captain 
Craig Wadsworth, in a letter which is published in Mr. 
Allen's Memorial. Captain Wadsworth was attached to 
the cavalry division, which was guarding the wagon 
train ; but, by permission of his commanding officer, he 
went to the front, and remained with his father for two 
or three hours on the morning of the memorable 6th, and 
while the fight was going on. 

It seems, from that account, that General Wadsworth' s 
command had been engaged for several hours on the 
evening of the 5th, and had lost heavily. Early the next 
morning General Hancock ordered it again into action, 
on the right of the Second Corps. Wadsworth charged 
repeatedly with his division and carried an important 



point, which he was unable to hold, owing to the supe- 
rior force of the enemy. He was afterwards re-enforced, 
and, with six brigades, made three or four other assaults 
upon Hill's Corps, which was the one opposed to him. 
In these assaults he fought Avitli the greatest gallantry, 
having two horses killed under him. At eleven o'clock, 
General Hancock ordered him to withdraw, and there 
was a lull in the battle until about noon, when Long- 
street precipitated his force upon Wadsworth's left and 
drove back Ward's brigade, at that point, in some con- 
fusion. Wadsworth thereupon immediately threw for- 
ward his second line, composed of his own division, and 
formed it on the plank-road, at right angles with his 
original position. It was while trying to hold this line, 
with his own division, then reduced to about sixteen 
hundred men, that his third horse was shot under him, 
and he was himself struck in the head by a bullet. The 
enemy were charging at the time, and took the ground 
before the General could be removed. He was captured 
and carried, wiiile he was probably in a state of insensi- 
bility, to one of the rebel hospitals. No medical skill 
could save his life. He lingered from Friday afternoon 
until Sunday morning, and then yielded his brave spirit 
into the hands of its Maker. 

Thus died James Wadsworth, in the fifty-seventh year 
of his age, and in the full strength of his manhood. 



33 

Mail}' a tl•u<^ and ])jave, and noble soldier fell on that 
bloody field, but none truer, or braver, or nobler than 
he. Many a patriot consummated there the long record 
of his sacritices, but none left a brighter and purer record 
of sacrifices than he. In this war, which has been illus- 
trated by so many instances of heroism, it seems almost 
unjust to compare one man's services with another's ; 
and Wadsworth, with his unaffected modesty, and his 
reverence for worth wherever it existed, if bis spirit 
could sit in judgment on our words, would rebuke us 
for attributing to liim a more genuine loyalty than that 
which animated many a poor private who fell by his 
side. But when we remember how entirely impossible 
it was in his case that his worldly advantages should 
have been increased by military service, and how often 
it is that a mixture of motives imjjels men in general to 
undertake it, we feel that we can give our praise to him 
with fuller hearts, in no unstinted measure, and with no 
reservations or perplexing doubts. 

As he lay ujion the field, in the midst of the dead and 
the dying, in that awful interval between the retreat of 
his own men and the advance of the enemy, if any gleam 
of consciousness was vouchsafed to him, may we not 
hope that the recollection of his noble fidelity to his 
country assuaged the bitterness of that solemn hour ? 



" AVlio is the liai)py warrior!;" asks a famous English 
poet ; and the poet answers, he is the happy warrior 

" Whom neither shape of danger can dismay. 
Nor thought of tender happiness betra}' : 

* H: * * * 

Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth 

Forever, and to noble deeds give birth, 

Or he must go to dust without his fame. 

And leave a dead, unprofitable name. 

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause ; 

And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 

His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause. 

This is the happy warrior, this is he 

Whom every man in arms should wish to be!" 

M}^ friends, will it violate the proprieties of this occa- 
sion ; will it seem to be turning our thoughts too far 
from him whose life and services we so gratefully com- 
memorate, if we seek, in his example, some influence 
which may strengthen our own patriotism and confirm 
our hesitating feet in that path which he trod with such 
unfaltering step ? 

AVe claim, in this Association, to be animated by 
better motives than money-getting or pleasure-seeking. 
We try to encourage a spirit of philosophic inquiry and 
the study of literature and art. These are noble objects. 
But is it not true that, instead of aiding and stimulating, 
they sometimes take the place of that love of country 
which is so much higher and nobler than they ? Is it not 



true that everywhere in this Nation, even in this moment 
of supreme trial, Avlien the Republic needs the best 
thoughts and the most sagacious counsels as well as the 
life-blood of her sons, there are men of distinguished 
position, of large experience, ripe learning, and varied 
accomplishments, who are still intent upon their books 
and their pictures, and who abandon piiblic affairs to 
pretenders making a trade of politics, and having no 
more intelligence or learning than thej have patriotism 
or virtue 'i 

If there be thousands of men who, like Wadsworth. 
are willing to give their lives and all that they hokl most 
dear and precious for their country, is it too much to ask 
that we should sacritice in her service a little of our time 
and our comfort — a little of the leisure that we devote to 
literary and artistic jiursuits — a little of the luxurious 
ease of our pleasant studies ? 

"Too much to ask,'' do I say? What would be all 
the consolations of pliilosophy — all the delights of 
poetry — all the charms of books, and pictures, and intel- 
lectual converse, if the administration of our political 
affiiirs should be surrendered to knaves and tricksters, if 
chicanery should take the place of statesmanship, if our 
country, the loving mother of us all, should stand 
ashamed and degraded before the nations, dislionored 
by her children, all the brightness of her raiment tar- 



30 "^ 

nished, and tlin light of glory burning n<^ longer in Ikm- 
eagle eyes l 

My friends, let ns renew our vows of allegiance to 
her over AVadsworth's hleeding body; let us sweai' to 
hold her, next after God, first in our heart of hearts ; to 
devote to her the best fruits of our studies, the most 
exquisite works of our hands — to defend her against all 
assaults ; to magnify her in the face of her enemies, and, 
finally, if she should demand the sacrifice, to lay down 
our lives in her service ! 



ME. COZZE^S^S 



KTTLOO^Y 



C O L O N E L P O Pv T E R 



Mk. 1'resident and Fellow-Members of " The Century" — 

It lias been the custom of onr honored Institution, 
from its beginning, to pay some brief tribute to the 
memory of its departed members, as year after year sep- 
arates name after name from its fraternal roll. It is a 
beautiful custom, and one peculiarly suited to this Asso- 
ciation, which, being necessarily limited in numbers, feels 
the more keenly the loss of any one who has been a part 
and agent of itself. If the qualifications of a new mem- 
ber are so closely determined, both in the Board of Ad- 
missions and by the open vote of the Club, that we may 
feel assured that there is nothing in the mind, the char- 
acter, or the career of the candidate to conflict with the 
objects of "The Century," nor to mar its harmonious 
movements in obedience to the organic law which called 
it into being, how much the more do we estimate the 
character of a member Avho has been for many yeai's 
bound to us by every social tie, and endeared to us b}" 



40 

every quality tliat lends dignity and grace, even to the 
Association itself^ 

At the annual meeting of next month we shall com- 
memorate the eighteentli anniversary of " The Century/"' 
A glance at its original purport may not he uninterest- 
ing, in connection with the subject of this discourse. On 
January 13, 1847, the first meeting was held. It was 
then "deemed expedient to form an association of gentle- 
men of the city of New York and its vicinity, engaged or 
interested in letters or the fine arts, in order to bring 
them into more frequent, friendly, and social intercourse ; 
and, at the same time, afford them opportunities of con- 
sultation in regard to the fine arts of this country — a 
subject in which all felt the deepest interest." It was 
then proposed that the Association should consist of one 
hundred members. Mr. Edgar S. Yan Winkle suggested 
that, from the number of its members, it should be called 
"The Century." This happy title was adopted, and 
although we have grown out of the limits of the specified 
number embraced in the title, yet, in honor to the original 
founders, we bear the name still. 

It would be a grateful task to trace the history of 
"The Century" from its inception to the present time. 
The illustrious men, of all countries, who have found- 
access to its congenial climate, speak of it in terms too 
flattering to be repeated here. Its objects have never 



41 

been eoiTupted hy any influences sti'ong enough to move 
it from tlie broad base upon which it was organically 
established. When innovation attempted to (;hange its 
purpose, it moved a little, but swung back into its old 
courses, as if it had been the very pendulum of con- 
servatism. For in the harmonious intercourse which 
brings together gentlemen of taste and cultivation to 
discuss subjects connected with Letters — with Sculpture 
or Painting — with Progressive Science, or those Studies 
dear to the learned j)rofessions ; in such an intellectual 
convention there is no place for petty rivalries or nar- 
row schemes. On the contrary, such an association not 
only ennobles, elevates, dignities the social intercourse of 
its members, but its influence extends beyond the limits 
of itself ; it enriches the land with its silent Init pow- 
erful etforts in favor of correct taste and all the beauti- 
ful manifestations of art, and even carries into every 
action of familiar life a quiet charm, of which we are 
scarcely aware until we begiii to consider from whence 
this influence is derived. 

Is it then surprising that with this sweet fraternal 
feeling growing and clustering, year after year, within 
and around and about us, that 7^ ere, much more than 
in ordinary life, Ave should feel the loss we have sus- 
stained when we behold an empty space where on(;e 
stood the animated form ; where once we met the 



42 

happy smile ; where once we responded to the joyous 
voice ? 

Is it nnmanl}^ to remember that several familiar faces 
are no longer seen at our festivals ? When the first 
eulogy pronounced in "The Century," over the lamented 
Seymour, was hushed, was it not ' ' a sad hut pleasing 
thought" that we had preserved the brief memorial of 
his fellowship with us 'I Was tliere not even a more 
grateful feeling that we had had the forethought to do 
so, when, only a few years afterwards, we assembled 
upon a similar occasion, to listen to a passing tribute to 
the memory of Robert Kelly, the second member "The 
Century" had lost^ — himself the eulogist of the first?* 

Since that time many names have been added to the 
roll of the departed. And as the mortuary record length- 
ens — for who can tell whose name shall be the next in- 
scribed upon it? — there is a pleasing consciousness tliat 
we, in turn, shall be remembered by those that survive 
us— at our gatherings — at our meetings for business — 
at our festivals ; whenever there shall be a " Century' ' 



* Daniel Seymour, the first Secretary of "The Century," was a gentleman of 
the finest literary tastes and attainments. He, and Robert Kelly were fellow- 
students at Columbia College. Kelly was the more distinguished in public life 
as a leader in those benevolent institutions which have had so marked an 
influence upon our municipal historj^ Both were eminently beloved in private 
as in public life. The unobtrusive merit of the one, with the active benevolence 
of the otiier, formed a beautiful contrast. 



H' 



43 

assemblage, large or small — tliat there we shall not be 
forgotten ! 

It is scarcely necessary to recall to the minds of a 
majority of the members present, that our late friend 
and associate was the only son of "that brave soldier 
of tlie War of 1812,' ' General Peter B. Porter. It is 
due to the memory of the son that this memoir should 
also embi'ace a brief sketch of the father, particularly as 
no reliable liistory of the war in which he bore so dis- 
tinguished a part has yet been written. 

Among the earliest of the pioneers in Western New 
York, were two brothers, Augustus and Peter B. Porter, 
sons of Dr. Joshua Porter, of Salisbury, Connecticut. 

This Dr. Joshua Porter, the grandfather of Peter A. 
Porter, left behind him an autobiography, in manuscript, 
written in his ninety-first year, from which it appears 
that he was born in Wyndham, Coruiecticut, June 26, 
1730 ; graduated at Yale College in 1752 or 1753 ; was 
educated as a physician, and removed to Salisbury, Con- 
necticut, in November, 1757. For twenty-two years he 
was a member of the Connecticut Assembly, and sat in 
the lower house during forty-five sessions ; was ap- 
pointed Judge of Probate in 1774, and held the ofiice 
until 1812. In the Revolutionary War he commanded a 
regiment, which was for some time stationed at the then 
important point on the Hudson, Peekskill, forming one 



44 

of the defences of the river ; and lie was afterwards in 
the battle of Saratoga and at the memorable surrender of 
Bnrgojnie, October 16, 1777. He was also a member of 
the Connecticut Convention assembled to ratify the Con- 
stitution of the United States, in 1788 ; and his vote, as 
Colonel Joshua Porter, is recorded, January 9th of that 
year, in the affirmative. 

He was esteemed to be a man of vigorous mind, even 
in extreme old age, and his life had been as active as it 
was blameless. His two sons were well educated, and 
carried with them into the western wilderness the cus- 
toms, the training, and the experience of cultivated life. 

The younger brother, Peter B. Porter, was born at 
Salisbury, Connecticut, in 1773 ; graduated at Yale Col- 
lege in 1791, and studied law with Judge Reeve, of 
Litchtield. At this time the Great Holland Purchase, as 
it was then called, and has since been known, stimulated 
the enterprising and the intrepid in all parts of the 
country. This vast tract of three millions six hundred 
thousand acres, originally purchased of the State of 
Massachusetts by Robert Morris, the great financier of 
the Revolution, and by him sold, in 1792 and 1793, to 
Hermon Le Roy, John Linklaen, Clerrit Boon, and others, 
in trust for certain capitalists in Holland, Avho had fur- 
nished the money, comprises the whole or part of the 
counties of Allegany, Wyoming, Genesee, Orleans, Cat- 



45 

taraiigus, Erie, Niagara, and Cliautauque. To tliis un- 
broken region, "tlie wild lands of Western New York," 
the brothers Porter emigrated in the year 1793. In an 
address prepared thirty-eight years afterwards, for the 
Englossian Society, of Geneva College, the younger 
brother speaks ' ' of entering the interminable forests of 
the West at the German Flats^ at Mohawk, which was 
then the extreme verge of civilized improvements. The 
only evidences of civilized life consisted of some half- 
dozen log-huts at Iltica, and the same again at Canan- 
daigua. Besides these, there were a few miserable cabins 
sprinkled along the road, at a distance of five to ten 
miles apart, where the traveller might look, not as now, 
for comfort or for rest, but for the sheer necessities of 
continuing his journey." 

In 1795, the young pioneer, then in his twenty-second 
year, commences the practice of law at Canandaigua ; in 
1797, he begins his official life as County Clerk for the 
county of Ontario ; in 1802, he is elected member of 
the State Legislature ; and in 1808 and 1810, is elected 
to Congress. In the latter year he removes to Black 
Rock, where he has large possessions, and in the year 
following is prominently engaged upon two of the most 
important subjects that then occupied the public mind, 
and which have ever since exercised a marked influ- 
ence, not only upon the interests of the State, but upon 



46 

tlie wliole country. The lirst was his appointment, by 
act of Legislature of the State of New York (April 8, 
1811), on a commission "for taking into consideration 
all matters relating to Inland Navigation." It is impos- 
sible to over-estimate the value of this, the greatest Board 
of Commissioners the State of New York ever selected. 
It does not lessen, in the eyes of an admiring posterity, 
the high, patriotic, and sagacious character of this wise 
body of counsellors, w^hen it is remembered that they 
were not selected with any reference to party measures. 
The very mention of these eminent men at once recalls 
the Empire State in its proudest days, as well as its 
most disinterested legislators. It is a pleasure to repeat 
their names— Grouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensse- 
laer, De Witt Clinton, William North, Simeon De Witt, 
Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter, Robert R. Livingston, 
and last, not least, Robert Fulton ! It is to this com- 
mission that we owe the policy which gave our State 
that teeming cornucopia of the West — the Erie Canal ! 

forethought shrewd 1 stretch of human miud 1 
genius born to bless, not curse mankind 1 
That with prophetic skill (like him, the blest) 
Saw the rich Canaan of the teeming West ! 
And that the States their chiefest boon should know, 
Struck the bare rock, aud bade the waters flow. 
What had the East to boast, not having this ? 
On ocean's cheek what touch Uke Erie's kiss ? 
Lo, the broad West his genius shall proclaim ! 
Aud famished Europe murmur CUuton's name! 



47 

That we owe to the inventive genius of De Witt 
Clinton the first thought of this great public work, the 
greatest tlie world has ever seen, is no less true than 
that we owe to the commission, that supj)orted him in 
those trying days, a kindred debt of gratitude. 

In the same year (1811), but following his action 
upon this commission, Peter B. Porter filled the im- 
portant post, in Congress, of Chairman of the Committee 
on Foreign Relations. The Berlin and Milan decrees of 
Napoleon (the Continental Policy, as it was called), and 
the no less stringent policy of Great Britain, embraced 
in the "Orders in Council,"" had almost totally destroyed 
our commerce. But not only this, the free right to the 
high seas, the germ of all the policy that from that time 
to this has been dear to every American heart ; the sense 
of injustice that had already swept away the Tripolitan 
tribute under Preble and Decatur (as it has more recently 
the sound dues demanded by the countrymen of Hamlet) ; 
the right to sail a ship, in any sea, without interference 
from any powers, save those of Divine Providence, at 
that time had begun to excite the deepest interest. These 
subjects of international polity were somewhat compli- 
cated by the embargo and non-intercourse acts of our own 
country. 

All these matters being before the Committee of the 
House on Foreign Relations, of which Peter B. Porter 



48 

was Chairman, were speedily brouglit to a point. France 
having repealed the Berlin and Milan decrees, so far as 
they concerned the United States, Great Britain demand- 
ed still higher aiithoritj^ over the high seas in rela- 
tion to the same power. In response to this the Com- 
mittee reported, through their Chairman, resolutions 
recommending the increase of tlie military force, the 
fitting up of war vessels, the allowancing of merchant 
vessels to arm in self-defence, and such other measures 
as were necessary to maintain the position the United 
States had taken. 

In the records we find that the speech of the Chair- 
man, Peter B. Porter, introducing these resolutions, 
was marked by "great ability, firm and energetic in 
its tone, yet temperate and judicious." The resolu- 
tions were adopted December 19, 1811.* Immediately 
afterwards he resigned his seat in Congress. And al- 
though tendered a Brigadier's commission in the regular 
army, he declined it in favor of a commission from his 
own State as Quartermaster-Gfeneral. From this period 
his active militar^^ life begins. ' ' To trace his military 
career,'' says the author of the Holland Purchase, ''from 
battle-field to battle-field, would be to write a history 
of a large portion of the war upon the Niagara fron- 
tier." 

* Hildretli. Vol. III., see. 2, p. 226. 



4!) 

It is to be regretted tliat we have not a complete, 
reliable history of our last striTggle with England. It is, 
to be sure, "a sj)otted field;" and perhaps (to many) a 
bare exhibition of the record would be not pleasing. 
There were many who objected to that war ; there Avas 
much legislative interference ; there were some conven- 
tions in session whose proceedings amounted to very 
little ; and perhaps some trifling with fire-arms at Detroit 
and Bladensburg ; but why should a respect for the 
feelings of a few imperfect-minded men, in some narrow 
strips and shreds of this great nation, be a barrier to a 
publication that would place in bold relief the heroic 
character of the real men of that time l 

The War of 1812 was, at the same time, the shortest, 
as well as one of the most important wars that ever 
occupied the attention of mankind. That it was brief, 
we have only to consider that the Declaration of War 
was proclaimed June 18, 1812, and that the Declaration 
of Peace was ratified at Washington February 17, 1815 — 
say two years and eight months, save one day. That it 
was important, the freedom of the high-seas will witness. 
That it destroyed the power of Great Britain uj)on those 
blue waters, is now a matter of histor}^ It was a battle 
fought for all mankind as to the right of a common high- 
way. It was a battle for a right-of-way over a briny 
common that a modern king of Great Britain had no 



50 

more authority to control than one of its ancient kings 
had to bid, " come no farther."* 

In the early part of the contest Hull's surrender at 
Detroit had turned the direction of the war to the Niagara 
frontier, as the most vulnerable point along the lines. 
As we have seen. General Porter was at this time resi- 
ding at Black Rock, where he had large possessions. But 
his active, energetic mind did not permit him to remain 
at home during the first indications of battle. We find 
him "twice leading the van" in General Smythe's unfor- 
tunate army of invasion in 1812, and his sarcastic com- 
ments upon this futile attempt led to a duel between him 
and his superior officer. In 1813, the British surprise 
Black Rock, and he narrowly escapes being captured 
in his own house. The result of his escape is the cap- 
ture by him, in turn, of the capturers of Black Rock — 
Lieutenant-Colonel Bishop and his forces. We hear of 
him as taking an active part in the Sackett's Harbor 
expedition ; in the contemplated attack of Montreal ; in 
the attack and capture of Little York (now Toronto). 
In 1814, he joins Major-General Jacob Brown with a 
brigade of thirty-five hundred men, composed of New 
York and Pennsylvania Yolunteers, with a portion of 

* The intense feeling of this time, as well as the popular sentiment, is to be 
found in the brief abstract of General Porter's speech, in Hildreth's ?Iistorv of 
the United States, Second Series, Vol. III., p. 260, to the end of the chapter. 



51 

tlie Indians of the Six Nations, particnlarl}^ the Seneca 
tribe, headed by those notable -warriors and orators, 
Corn-Planter and Red- Jacket.* It is to be remembered 
that the Indians on the enemy's side were headed by 
the son of Joseph Brant (Thayendanagea). The mem- 
orable battle of Chippewa folloAved, in which Porter 
was an active and gallant, though not successful, par- 
ticipant. General Armstrong, in his notice of the War 
of 1812, says : " General Brown detached Brigadier- 
General Porter, of the New York Militia, to march 
rapidly, under cover of an adjoining wood, and throw 
himself between the British skirmishing party and the 
main body. He succeeded in completely routing the 
outposts, and was pursuing them, when he unexpectedly 
found himself in presence of the main body, and was 
obliged to retreat." This affair was commented upon 
with great severity by some military critics of the day ; 
great cowardice was awarded to the militia, but the 
gallant conduct of General Porter was greatl}^ applauded 
by all. In Major-General Brown's official report of 
Chippewa, he says: "By this time Porter's command 
gave way and fled in every direction, notwithstanding 

* See Stone's Life of Red-Jacket, also his Life of Joseph Brant. The latter 
contains a letter from Porter, descriptive of Brant's habits in England. It shows 
the Mohawk chief to have been a most amiable and gentlemanly person, in 
accordance with his early training (which was for the Church), notwithstanding 
his natural taste for blood. But all men have their weaknesses. 



52 

liis personal gallantry and great exertion to stay the 
flight." But this very body of volunteers more than 
redeemed themselves in the battle of Lundy's Lane and 
the sortie of Fort Erie. In the terrible conflict of Lnncly' s 
Lane, when the brave Colonel Miller had carried the 
heights, and captured the key of the position, it was 
Porter' s volunteers that served as the supporting force ; 
and the details of that battle furnish the evidence how 
bravely they made amends for their former lack of spirit. 
A gallant officer, wlio was himself an actor in this battle, 
in speaking of the last desperate charge that decided the 
day, says : ' • Porter' s volunteers were not excelled by 
the regulars during this charge. They were soon pre- 
cipitated, by their heroic conmiander, upon the enemy's 
line, which they broke and dispersed, making many 
prisoners. The enemy now seemed to be eff"ectually 
routed — they disappeared. And even at Chippewa, a 
portion of these men were rallied by their commander, 
and ordered forward in pursuit of the enemy, which, by 
General Scott, were driven back from that hard-fouglit 
field, and decided the conflict in our favor. '"^^ 

For these various services General Porter was com- 
misioned Major-General in the Regular Army of the 
United States. 

* Sillimau's Gallop through American Scenery, p. '255. 



58 

After Lundy's Lane, the sortie from Fort Erie forms 
the cliief point of interest in the historj^ of the war on 
tlie Niagara frontier. Tliis fort had been captun^d some 
time before by the Americans, had been strengtliened by 
tliem materially, and was strongly garrisoned ; but Gen- 
eral Drummond, being heavily re-enforced, determined to 
capture it by assault, on the morning of the 15th of 
August, 1814. The repulse of the British, and the death 
of General Drummond, who was shot while exclaiming 
"Show no mercy!" after the capture of a bastion, are 
sufficiently familiar. The enemy withdrew to a safe dis- 
tance for a regular siege; and, after a month's time, had 
advanced his parallels to within four hundred yards of 
the right of our lines. General Brown determined to 
attack him within his own defences. A rainy, foggy 
morning was selected for the enterprise. The command 
of the right wing was given to the brave Colonel Miller ; 
the left to General Porter. Ripley held the reserve. 
Porter's command consisted of his volunteers, Gibson's 
riflemen, and the remains of the First and Twenty-third 
Regiments of United States Infantry. The assault was 
made with desperate fury. Porter carried a block-house 
of the enemy, in rear of Battery No. 3, by storm ; made 
the garrison prisoners ; blew up the j^ow^der magazine ; 
and hastened to the assistance of Colonel Miller. He, in 
turn, had penetrated Batteries Nos. 1 and 2, and, by the 



54 

aid of Porter, carried both. The result was, that tlie 
British advanced works being destroyed, and a large 
number of prisoners captured, as well as a heavy loss 
in killed and wounded, caused the works of Drummond 
to be abandoned. General Brown, in his report, says : 
"In a close action, not exceeding an hour, one thousand 
troops of the line, and an equal number of New York 
Militia, destroyed the fruits of fifty days' labor, dimin- 
ished his effective force one thousand men, and forced 
upon him the abandonment of the siege and speedy 
retreat to Chippewa," And a military critic of no little 
renown, Major-General Sir William F, P, Napier, in his 
History of the AYar of the Peninsula, refers to it in high 
terms, as follows: "The sortie of Fort Erie was a bril- 
liant acliievement ; tlie only instance in histor}" where a 
besieging army was entirely broken up and routed by a 
single sortie." 

But tliis gallant action was not without severe loss 
on our side. The three officers in command of the divi- 
sions under General Porter — Colonel Gibson, General 
Davis, and Lieutenant - Colonel Wood, fell mortally 
wounded. General Porter himself was wounded twice 
in the sortie. An incident, characteristic of his bravery 
and presence of mind, is related by his son. As he was 
going from one part of the field to another, during 
the engagement, attended only by his staff, he came 



00 

suddenly upon a party of British soldiers, about eighty 
in number. Putting a bold face upon the matter, he 
went up to them, and said, "That's right, my brave 
fellows! surrender; I'll take care of you," at the same 
time throAving down their muskets, which were piled or 
stacked ; but they, recovering from their surprise, picked 
up their fire-arms, and no doubt would have captured 
him and his staff, but for the timely appearance of a 
body of Americans. The result was a brisk skirmish, 
in which most of the enemy were killed or made pris- 
oners. "With the destruction of Fort Erie, and the 
removal of the troops from the Canada line, the cam- 
paign of the Army of the North, in 1814, was ended."* 
In acknowledgment of his services in this war, the city 
of New York presented General Porter with the freedom 
of the city in a gold box ; the State of New York voted 
him a sword ; and the thanks of the Congress of the 
United States, with a gold medal, struck to commem- 
orate the successful campaign of 1814, were presented 
to the five generals Avho had most distinguished them- 
selves — General Brown, General Scott, General Eipley, 
General Gaines, and General Porter. In the lately pub- 
lished autobiography of Lieutenant- General Scott there 
is but little mention of General Porter, in connection 

* "Scenes in the War of 181 U."' — Harper, January, 1804. 



56 

with the battles of Chippewa and Luiidy's Lane. But 
it is not tlie custom with autobiographers to permit the 
pnblic mind to be diverted from tlie principal charac- 
ter, whose great deeds they are describing. Some cor- 
respondence, however, found among General Porter's 
papers, after his death, reveals the fact that his great 
services were not overlooked by the Government in 
1814. He was then appointed ^^ Commander- in-Chief of 
tlie Army of the Frontier f and his commission, with 
the papers accompanying it, are now in the possession 
of his family. But the war being speedily brought to a 
close, he declined the merited distinction, as his services 
were no longer actively required. 

But the exercise of his abilities for the pul)lic good 
did not cease with his military life. In the year folloAv^- 
ing the war (1815), we find him nominated by the Gov- 
ernor of the State of New York, Daniel D. Tompkins, 
for Secretary of State. "He did not solicit the appoint- 
ment," says Hammond, "his business at Black Rock, 
where he resided, requiring his personal attention ;" 
and, besides, he had been the year before re-elected to 
Congress. His appointment, however, was confinmed 
by the Council ; and as it may be interesting to know 
why, I quote the language used upon the occasion : 
"That General Peter B. Porter had honorably distin- 
guished himself in the army on the Niagara frontier 



o7 

during tlie "war ; and, besides, was justly esteemed as a 
man of the first order of intellect." These were consid- 
ered qualifications in 1815. It does not appear, how- 
ever, that even with this flattering commendation, he 
served as Secretary of State ; his election to Congress 
may have prevented his acceptance. In 1816 we still 
find him occupied with arduous public duties. He is 
appointed (by President Madison) Commissioner, under 
the Treaty of Ghent, to settle the boundary line between 
the United States and Great Britain. 

For a time we lose sight of him as a public man. He 
married, late in life, Mrs. Letitia Grayson, a widow lady, 
and daughter of the late John Breckinridge, of Kentucky, 
formerly Attorney-General of the United States, under 
President Jeff'erson. The estimable character of this 
most charitable and pious lady, who died only a feAV 
brief years after her marriage, leaving a son and daugh- 
ter, is so well known that it has become a matter of 
public record, and therefore I do not transgress the limit 
of propriety in speaking of her here. 

The personal friend of Colonel Porter, as well as his 
legal adviser and executor,* who has generously fur- 
nished me with the materials he had collected for a 
biographical sketch for the Buftalo Historical- Society, 
says, in a letter : 

* Mr. Charles D. Xorton, of Buftalo. 



58 

' ' I recollect lier, a woman of noble presence and 
imperial face and form, very gracious in her manners, 
of wonderful capacity in the management of affairs ; of a 
most benevolent and charitable disposition, she was the 
friend of the friendless and the supporter and benefac- 
tress of all wortliy institutions. She was renowned in 
this region for her care of the poor, and her sympathy 
for all those in circumstances either of poverty or afflic- 
tion. Her door, in the cold mornings of winter, was 
beset by her dependents, and they went away rejoicing 
in what was most necessary for them in their condition. 
At her decease, the local journals, the papers of Washing- 
ton, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Louisville, 
spoke of her in terms of the highest eulogy, and record- 
ed her many virtues. Her correspondence shows her to 
have been the friend of Clay, Calhoun, General Scott, 
and the most distinguished statesmen of her time ; and 
I find letters of condolence upon her decease from Gen- 
eral Scott, Henry Clay, Mr. Calhoun, General Cass, Mr. 
Preston, Commodore Rodgers, and others ; all of them 
expressive of the same grief for her death, and extolling 
those remarkable graces of mind and person for which 
she was distinguished above her sex. 

"From such a mother Colonel Porter inherited many 
of his noblest traits of character, and it is not surprising 
that a man thus born and reared and educated should 



59 

liave "been noticeable for the best gifts which God vouch- 
safes to the distinguished sons of our race." 

The hist important position which General Porter 
occupied in public affairs was that of Secretary of War, 
under the administration of John Quincy Adams, in 1828. 
It is said that this appointment was derived solely from 
the active influence of Mr. Clay, his personal friend 
and rival in debate, who fully appreciated his great 
shrewdness and sagacity. A contemporary, and one of 
the few able men that have survived this period, says, 
"that his administration was very able; his method 
excellent ; being himself a business man, the routine of 
his department was thorough, while his official docu- 
ments were marked with great elegance of style, as well 
as singular simplicity and clearness. He was a little 
deaf, but it was a great pleasure to sit beside him, upon 
social occasions, at table ; his manners were fascinating, 
and his conversation happy and unaffected, although 
pregnant with fine thoughts and observations of the 
world."* From another source we learn, "that in the 
records of legislation, in State or Nation, there are few 
better specimens of eloquence than he uttered, or of 
compositions than those that came from his pen."t 

If I have trespassed too much upon your time, in 

* Hon. Gillian C. Verplanck. f Holland Purchase, I3. 615. 



60 

recalling these particulars, it is because a brief liistoiy 
of the career of the gallant father forms a portion, as it 
were, of the biography of his no less gallant son. We 
recognize the same traits of character in both, and the 
comparison is drawn still closer when we reflect that 
the hero that led the sortie of Fort Erie was then about 
the same age as our hero when he led the charge at the 
bloody battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia. 

Peter Augustus Porter was born at Black Rock (now 
a part of Buffalo, New York), July 14, 1827. Four years 
afterwards, in 1831, we find, by the family record, that 
he becomes an orphan on the mother's side ; and in 1844, 
a few years after the General's removal to Niagara Falls, 
a great concourse assembles there to pay the last tribute 
of respect to the hero of Fort Erie and the Niagara 
frontier. At the time of the death of his father, he is 
still a mere youth, seventeen years of age. It is due to 
his memory to say, that much of the care of his earlier 
years devolved upon his only sister, of whom he always 
spoke ill terms of the tenderest affection. 

He was prepared for college by the Rev. James Such, 
a graduate of Cambridge, an English gentleman, and an 
accomplished scholar. He entered Harvard College in 
August, 1842, in the Sophomore class ; graduated in 
August, 1845 ; visited Europe in Ma}^, 1846 ; and studied 
for some years at Heidelberg, Berlin, and Breslau, in 



61 

order to perfect himself in the usual accomplishments of 
a scholar and a gentleman. He returned to America in 
the spring of 1849, to take charge of his patrimonial 
estate, which was large, and situated in the counties of 
Erie and Niagara. In 1854 he engages in the study of 
the law, at Cambridge, Massachusetts ; in September, 
1855, he again visits Europe, and returns in May, 1857. 

It would appear incumbent upon me to refer here to 
his immediate family relations. It is true, they form part 
of his domestic history ; but it seems to me too delicate 
a task to perform now. I shall, therefore, avoid tread- 
ing upon this sacred ground, and I am sure he would 
sanction my reticence if he were present. 

Let us, rather, turn to those matters which more 
immediately concern his connection with "The Century." 
He became a member of the Association on the 9tli of 
January, 1853. 

At this time the "Journal of the Century" was in full 
vigor. The "Journal" was a collection of papers, con- 
tributed from time to time by the members, and read at 
the monthly meetings. Mr. John H. Clourlie was then 
the chief, and I had the honor to be junior, editor. One 
evening, just preceding the monthly meeting in July, 
1853, Mr. Cranch placed in my hands a MS. poem, en- 
titled ''The Spirit of Beauty." It struck me then as a 
rare specimen of rhythmical art, and it possessed, besides, 



62 

a very subtle humoristic quality, that rare and dangerous 
companion of delicate verse. When it was read its re- 
ception was as flattering as its merits deserved. I was 
then just acquainted with the author, and at my request 
he permitted the poem to be printed in the " Knicker- 
bocker" of the following month, by whose judicious 
readers it was highly relished and appreciated. In 
April, 1857, another poem from his pen, entitled "Arca- 
dia, a Medley," was read before "The Century," and 
at my request he allowed it to be published in "Put- 
nam's Magazine," of May. It was not the less enjoyed 
and appreciated. In 1858 he wrote the "King's Speech," 
in the great Twelfth Night festival ; and at the Twelfth 
Night festival of ]859, made the "Queen's Speech," 
both of which are preserved in the archives of ' ' The 
Century." The last contribution of Colonel Porter to 
"The Journal" was in 1858. It was a humorous tilt 
at our ancient festivals, entitled the "Centurion's Dream." 
It was subsequently printed in the " Crayon," of Novem- 
ber, 1860. This, like all the other productions of his 
pen, he had great misgivings for ; he did not think it 
worth publishing. I had some difficulty in changing 
his opinion, or, perhaps, his determination. In regard 
to these matters, he always afforded a striking and a 
pleasing contrast to many other versifiers with whom 
I had the honor to be acquainted. Their pens were 



63 

not lodged in tlie racks before they were ready to fiy 
into the world, to let that great listener know what 
they had done. But that great listener is as discrimi- 
nating as it is amiable ; and it has placed a few poems 
of modest merit far above the strife, the rivalry, the 
dust, and struggles of literary aspirants, in the poetical 
arena. Let us, at least, accord to Porter that he was 
not a contestant for the laurel crown. He looked upon 
the conflict from his side-box. He had learned, from the 
teachings of his early tutor, the Rev. James Such, who 
was a most accomplished scholar in versification, the full 
value of prosody, the longs and shorts, the rhythmical 
music of the old English tongue ; and he employed his 
lore in compositions merely for the amusement of his 
friends. 

A beautiful elegiac poem from his hand, written in 
Europe, some years ago, "Upon hearing of the early 
death of George H. Emerson, a college friend and class- 
mate," was republished in the "New York Times" of 
June 14th or 15th of this year. It is full of the ten- 
derest pathos, and might properly be quoted here, if 
it did not too painfully recall the writer. In the 
"Wine Press" for April, 1860, a contribution from 
his pen appears. It purports to be a continuation of 
Macaulay's History; but the writer, with that constant 
regard for truth which, even in fiction or in jest, 



64 

always accompanies him, says of the sketches of the 
lives of Washington and Franklin, "they pnrport to 
be sketches for a future volume, by Macaulay ;" but 
in the preceding paragraph he says, '-^ hut for tlieir 
autJienticity I do not goucJi.'''' And this he does as 
a forewarning to the cursory reader, to be on his 
guard against the playful deception, which is so close 
to the original in style^ that it might have deceived 
the most cultivated and the most observant of critics. 

In the "BuflEalo Commercial Advertiser" of Novem- 
ber 19th, 1864, appears a posthumous poem, entitled 
"Come nearer to me. Sister," written by Porter, when 
only nineteen years of age. It bears all the promises 
of his early genius, which afterwards ripened into 
more perfect productions. I do not know of any 
American poem more tenderly pathetic than it. To any 
one competent to measure the latent and undeveloped 
powers of a highly imaginative mind — rich in treas- 
ures of learning and controlled by an exquisite taste — 
these few pieces will afford a curious and interesting 
study. The humorous verses exhibit, with every chan- 
ging current of the theme, a wonderfully creative fancy, 
original in conception, delicate in expression, and almost 
as perfect in musical rhythm as some of the most elab- 
orate essays in versilication of the present time. In the 
elegiac lines we find the same powers of imagination 



65 

developed in language of tlie deepest patlios ; nervous, 
but chastened by the tenderest emotions, and elevated 
in accordance with the solemn character of the theme. 
In the imitations of Macaulay, we perceive that it is 
the style only of the late eminent historian that is 
copied. The thoughts are Porter' s own ; and, clothed 
in other hmguage, without the trick of antithetical 
rhetoric, would place his powers as an analyst of char- 
acter upon a par with those of the happiest writers of 
that class. In all things his judgment went hand in 
hand with his imagination ; his exuberant fancy was 
curbed by his taste ; and his erudition was only equalled 
by his modesty. 

Nor was his knowledge in art less cultivated, less 
delicate, less intelligent. He was quick to detect merit 
in the earlier works of rising artists ; totally unbiased 
by the schools ; and broad and generous in his ap- 
plause when art-critics hesitated to commend works of 
real genius. With such gifts, which, had he lived, 
would have been developed to the honor of the State 
and to the credit of the Nation, our dear friend has 
closed his career. "Colonel Porter," says Mr. Norton, 
"has left a mass of half-finished manuscripts; a play 
incomplete ; a fragment of verse ; an essay here ; a poem 
there ; — if the time were not so brief between now and 
December, I wish they were in your hands, that you 

9 



66 

might judge more accurately of his varied ability," And 
in a subsequent letter from this gentleman, he says : 
"Porter had collected all his father's papers and letters 
relating to the last war, with the view of Avriting a 
history of the campaign of 1812 ; for he was always of 
the opinion that such a history was a desideratum, 
none having been written which gave all the facts of 
that eventful period with the fulness and accuracy which 
the events demanded, and the importance of the war 
required." 

You, Mr. President,* who can so fully estimate the 
meaning of this brief extract from a familiar letter ; you, 
who have devoted your life-long labors to the history 
of this country upon its ancient theatre ; you, who have 
done for the earlier actors of the colonies, and the revo- 
lution, what our beloved friend and associate intended 
to undertake, that we might have a true representation 
of the conilict Avhicli gave us the free right of the seas 
of all nations, as the earlier revolution gave us the free 
right of the lands we occupy ; you, who have so labo- 
riously built up one of the American Pyramids, can 
more truly than any other estimate the loss we have 
sustained in the younger Cephrenes. 

It is, indeed, to be regretted, that so valuable an 

* Mr. George Bancroft. 



67 

acquisition to our growing libraries should have been 
lost. It is true, the "correspondence, notes, and re- 
ports," of the elder Porter, may pass into other hands, 
and be still treasured and recorded in libraries and 
cabinets, as forming an extensive view of our last war 
with Great Britain ; but, whatever may become of them, 
it will be a source of regret to the future student, to 
think that they were left without the touch of the ani- 
mated pen that could have given them vitality, warmth, 
and coloring. In this, as in every other way, we feel 
that we have sustained a great public loss. Who shall 
fill the vacant chair, or wield the graceful pen which 
fled from fingers so competent? 

The political life of Peter A. Porter was brief. Like 
his father, he was a member of the Assembly of his 
native State — elected in 1861. In March, 1862, he made 
a very spirited address to that body, in relation to a 
bill providing for the public defence. He, among the 
very few, had a true idea of the magnitude of the ap- 
proaching conflict ; and even anticipating foreign inter- 
vention, in which case the Niagara frontier would have 
been, as in 1812, the assailable point, he says: ^'Our 
frontier should be the bulwark ; we should defend it- 
May we not hope, at all events, that the strife may be 
confined to our border ; that, using all arms and de-" 
fences that may be given us by the State and country, 



•68 

we shall confine tlie desolation to our own farms and 
fields, and not snffer the tide of blood to stain the pure 
waters of the Susquehanna or the rich valleys of the 
Genesee?" 

At the outbreak of the war I had many opportunities 
of conversing with Colonel Porter, in relation to the 
aspect, civil and military, of the approaching struggle. 
His position in regard to it was unmistakable. Con- 
nected as he was, by bii'th as well as by marriage, with 
the Breckinridges of Kentucky ; knowing, as he did, by 
constant intercourse with leading Southern men, much 
more of the policy that underlaid Southern principles 
than the majority of professional writers upon the sub- 
ject, and being well informed, by personal observation, 
of the true state of the South, both in regard to its 
strength and its weakness, his opinions were singu- 
larly valuable, and his statements singularly clear and 
reliable. 

But the position that he had taken was as firm as it 
was temperate. It was the position that became the Chris- 
tian gentleman and the patriotic soldier. And in this, as 
in every other act of his life, he lived up to his profes- 
sions. In his letter of September 5, 1863, declining the 
nomination of Secretary of State of New York, we find 
• a full exposition of his vieAvs of the political aspects of 
the question. And even to those who do not adopt all 



69 

Ms conclusions, tlie animus wliicli pervades liis political 
faith will be as dear to tliem as love of country can 
inspire. I do not quote tliis admirable letter at length, 
because I feel sure that it will be embraced, with many 
other writings from his jDen, in some future volume. 
But I cannot avoid referring to one of his reasons for 
declining the nomination, namely, his immediate obliga- 
tions to his regiment, the Eighth New York Artillery. 
"I left home," he says, "in command of a regiment 
composed, mainly, of the sons of friends and neighbors, 
committed to my care. I can hardly ask for my dis- 
charge while theirs cannot be granted ; and I have a 
strong desire, if alive, to carry back those whom the 
chances of time and war shall permit to be 'present,' and 
to 'account' in person for all." 

With this letter his political career closes. I am not 
aware that he gave any public exjDression of his senti- 
ments afterwards ; and in his military career, he was 
carefully "reticent" of all political matters. 

In the summer of 1862, the noble inftintry regiment 
which Colonel Porter had raised performed garrison 
duty in the defences of Baltimore. But to a young and 
inexperienced officer the j)Osition was trying and ardu- 
ous. In the first place, his command was changed to 
a regiment of artillery. In a regiment of infantry the 
numerical force is, in round numbers, about one thou- 



70 

sand men, wliile in a regiment of heavy artillery, it is 
from fifteen hundred to two thousand two hundred, men 
and officers. It is impossible now to ascertain the 
strength of his command, for the muster-rolls are not 
open for public inspection. But from a surmise of the 
necessary garrison of so important a post as Fort Mc- 
Henry, to estimate it at two thousand men would not be 
far from the truth. In the second place, his position as 
commandant of one of the most important fortifications 
on the Chesapeake, including, as it must have done, the 
garrison of Federal Hill, assailable by land or by sea — 
and, I may add, ^j>o/7z/5 that General Lee would have 
struck at, had the military genius of the North failed, 
either at Antietam or Gettysburg — to such a commander, 
so young in military affairs, the position must have been 
trying and arduous. Arduous^ to discipline so large a 
body of men, with such slight experience. Trying, to 
feel the contingencies that might hang upon his shoulders 
if he had to assume the defensive against Lee's army, 
flushed with victory. 

During these eventful periods of our country's his- 
tory, I had a few rare opportunities of seeing him in 
Baltimore and in Washington. He spent part of his 
time with me in his brief visits to the capital. He was 
always inquiring about our personal friends ; about 
"The Century," in particular, its members, its course of 



71 

action. Need I say to you how dear those conversations 
were ? But if these were interrupted by occasional visits 
of army officers, just from the front, the conversation 
took a technical turn. Tlien Colonel Porter was the 
anxious neophyte of military knowledge. I cannot con- 
ceive of any person paying a more absorbed attention 
to every sentence that fell from the lips of the prominent 
actors of the great strife, and particularly in details, 
than he. What he heard then I was satisfied was care- 
fully treasured in his memorj^. 

Let me briefly recall here one little incident of those 
days. As commandant of the post at Fort McHenry, he 
was also the custodian of political prisonei's. One day, 
while in Baltimore, I proposed to him to visit a friend 
who lived a few miles out of the city, and whose collec- 
tion of pictures was well worth seeing ; but Porter de- 
clined, and for these reasons : "I do not visit any per- 
sons in Baltimore," he said, "not even my own relatives. 
I might meet persons one day, socially, as friends, who, 
on the next, might be marched into the fort as captives. 
How could r receive as guests, and invite to my prison 
i^re, without feelings of compunction, those who had 
only a short time before received me with an abundance 
of hospitality ? Much as I would like to go, I feel that 
it is my duty to decline." And so, with a disposi- 
tion fitted for society ; with an exquisite appreciation 



of tile fine arts ; with a natural longing for something 
to temper the austerity of garrison life, his routine ser- 
vice was preferred by him, simply because it was liis 
duty ! 

And the fine feelings of the gentleman, as well as of 
the officer, shine forth very clearly, when, even out of 
respect for some of the possible prisoners, he says, 
" How could I invite them to my prison fare, who had, 
a short time before, received me with an abundance 
of hospitality?" Knowing, as we now do, his feelings 
in regard to such matters, we can the more fully appre- 
ciate the meaning of the expression in his letter declining 
the nomination of Secretary of State. "We hear and 
talk almost nothing of politics," he says, "in our little 
worldu'' 

And that '■'• little iDorUV of bastions and parapets, of 
soldiers and prisoners, bounded, for two years, a life so 
noble, so wise, so brave, and yet so gentle. 

We can imagine, however, that there Avere times 
when he- experienced a respite from the stifling bound- 
aries of his little world : it might have been, when, in 
the cool of the evening, he took his accustomed walk to 
that famous parapet at Fort McHenry where our flag 
floated during the bombardment of the British fleet in 
1814, the sight of which produced the immortal ode 
of Francis S. Key. Can we not also imagine that 



those hues of our flag, which suggested the line of the 
poet, 

'• In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream" — 

may have also suggested to Porter's mind the far off 
image of Niagara, with its national bow of promise — in 
full glory reflected ! and that the thought might have 
reminded him too of that earlier war, in which his father 
was so gallant a participant ? 

I may as well recall here, too, another incident. Col- 
onel Porter, in the early part of his military training, 
used to have an old sergeant, a veteran of the regular 
arm 3^, at his left hand, during regimental drill ; and it 
was his custom to consult this ''''vieux moustache'^ uj)on 
knotty and technical points concerning battalion tactics. 
Porter did not scruple to speak of this fact when talking 
with more exj)erienced officers. But it sometimes hap- 
pened that the sergeant was wrong. And I remember 
when a mooted point came up, and the advice was asked 
of a few military proficients, who happened to be together 
in Washington, that the ColoneFs judgment proved to 
be better than the sergeant' s training. And 1 well recol- 
lect the remark of an officer, afterwards, who had passed 
his life in the military service. "If your friend Porter," 
said he, ' ' is not afraid to begin with a sergeant at his 
elbow, with what he knows theoretically, and with what 

10 



74 

he will learn practically, he will become one of the most 
accomplished officers in the army. But," said he, "there 
are very few officers in the volunteer service who would 
dare to face their regiments with a sergeant as a tutor. 
It shows great firmness of character, and not a little of 
military shrewdness. ' ' 

Colonel Porter's desire to take an active part in the 
field kej)t pace with his military acquirements. It neither 
preceded nor followed them. Coupled with his ardent 
wish for more active life, was his sense of responsibility 
to his regiment. He had no thoughtless impulse that 
would lead him to squander the lives of his men in a 
fruitless field, but a strong desire to carry back those 
whom the chances, or time, or war, should permit to be 
present when the result was attained and the campaign 
was over. 

Let me now hastily refer to the movements of the 
Army of the Potomac which brought him into the field. 

General Grant, on the fourth of May, 1864, at four 
o'clock in the morning, struck tents and moved upon 
his momentous campaign. The various battles that fol- 
lowed, until the left wing of the army attacked the enemy 
at Spottsylvania Court-House, are sufficiently familiar. 
But just preceding this time, such had been the heavy 
losses sustained in our numerous battles, that the reserve 
forces in garrison were called out into the field. Burn- 



75 

side's Corps — the reserve of forty thousand men — had 
been already brouglit to the front in the tremendous 
conflicts in the early part of May, of which the battle of 
the Wilderness was the most trying. Hancock, Warren, 
Sedgwick, and Meade had been hammering away with 
unexampled valor at the enemy's front, without gain- 
ing a permanent foothold. But the loss of men had 
been fearful on both sides. 

At this time there were two regiments of heavy 
artillery commanding important points of defence on the 
Maryland peninsula. One was that of Colonel Porter, 
at Fort McHenry, overlooking the harbor and the city 
of Baltimore ; the other was that of Colonel Lewis O. 
Morris, at Tenallytown, covering the approaches, on the 
north, to the city of Washington. These two regiments 
of New York Volunteer Artillery, numbering some two 
thousand men each, intrusted with most important posi- 
tions of defence during the war, and now actively called 
into the field, possess, for us, a mournful interest. These 
regiments — the Seventh and Eighth New York Artillery 
— comprised the flower of tlie volunteer service of our 
State. Colonel Morris, of the Seventh, was the son of 
Brevet-Major Lewis N. Morris, United States Army, who 
was killed at the storming of the heights of Monterey, in 
Mexico. Colonel Porter, of the Eighth, was not less 
eminent in heroic lineage. Both officers entered the 



' 76 

campaign, together ; both were killed on the same battle- 
field. 

At the attack upon the defences of Spottsylvania 
Court-House, Colonel Porter was particularly distin- 
guished for gallant conduct. In order to animate and 
encourage his men, he fearlessly rode out in the face of 
the hottest fire of the enemy. But the ordinary chances 
of battle were not the only dangers to which he was 
exposed. He was picked out. There was a crack of a 
rifle, a puff of smoke from a tree in close proximity to 
the gallant Colonel, as he rode to and fro. A few well 
directed shots from our sharpshooters tumbled a rebel 
out of the tree, and, upon examination, it was found that 
he was shot through the head. When brought in, all 
wounded as he was, and questioned, his Southern bra- 
vado did not desert him. "I fired," said he, "at Colonel 
Porter out of that tree three times, and missed him every 
time." The men of Porter's regiment who heard him, 
would have killed him upon the sjitot with their bayo- 
nets, but for the interposition of Porter. " Let him 
alone," said he. "Poor fellow, he has been punished 
enough. Take him to the rear." "But how did you 
know," said one, "that it was Colonel Porter?" "Oh, 
I knew him well enough," said the rebel. "I was a 
prisoner under him at Fort McHenry." 

After Hancock's gallant attack upon Spottsylvania, 



77 

tlie arin}^, by successive marclies, moved over the ISTortli 
Anna, and crossed tlie Pamunkey, at Hanovertown. 
From "Wliite House" it skirted the defences of Rich- 
mond, on the peninsula, and found that the open ground 
which had been occu^^ied by General McClellan, in the 
campaign of 1862, was covered by' the defences of Rich- 
mond in 1864. This may explain why it is more difficult 
to capture that city now than it was two years earlier, 

BetAveen the Pamunkey and James Rivers, but much 
nearer to the former, lies a place known as Cold Har- 
bor. It is no liarhor, for it is quite inland ; a rolling 
country, not entirely cleared from the primitive forest ; 
patches of pines and oaks are interspread here and 
there with Virginia farms, as well cultivated as any in 
that country. Cold Harbor is not a village, nor even 
a collection of farmers' houses ; it used formerly to be 
a famous place for picnics and excursions from the 
capital of Virginia, from which it is about twelve miles 
distant. It has been suggested, that its shady coverts 
and breezy uplands ^ave it its original title of "Cool 
Arbor." But our worthy secretary* says that Cold 
Harbor is a coruuon name for many places along the 
travelled roads in England, and that it means, simply, 
" Shelter without fire." The German origin of the name, 

* Mr. Augustus R. Macdonough. 



78 

'■'' Herherge^^^ means a shelter. In this conntry there are 
now many settlements by the English formerly so named. 
But, in a military point of view. Cold Harbor is a 
place of no little importance. Its healthy elevation 
above the swamps of the Chickahominy ; its proximity 
to Richmond ; to the James River on the south ; the 
Pamunkey on tlie north ; to the A^irginia Central Rail- 
road on the west, and the York and Riclimond Rail- 
road on the east, would suggest at once to a commander 
the necessity of taking possession of it. More than 
this, it is the centre of five turnpikes, that lead to all 
these important communications like the spokes of a 
Avheel to its periphery. It is a splendid fighting coun- 
tr}", twice famous for obstinate and determined battles. 
Gaines' Mill, about two miles west of it, was held for 
a while during the " seven days" by General McClellan; 
— the rebels keeping possession of Cold Harbor. In 
General Grant's campaign, two years afterwards, and 
in the same month, the positions were nearly reversed — 
the rebels holding Gaines' Mill, while our attack was 
to capture the intrenchments at Cold Harbor, which 
w^ould have given us the passage of the Chickahominy. 
Two of the five roads that radiate from this point 
are crossed by another, about a mile and a half south — 
the two radii forming the sides of a triangle, of which 
the cross-road is the hypothenuse. Within this narrow 



79 

patcli of eartli the most deadly struggle was waged. 
On the west road the enemy's rifle-pits and intrench- 
ments covered the approach to Gaines' Mill. Early in 
the morning of the third of June, orders were given to 
advance against the enemy's works, and capture the 
point of roads. It is necessaiy to say, here, that the 
Seventh and Eighth New York Heavy Artillery served 
as infantry in this campaign ; that these large regiments 
were brigaded with what remained of several infantry 
regiments, and, with these skeleton regiments, consti- 
tuted the effective force of the attacking brigades. Col- 
.onel Porter's regiment was in General Gibbon's Divi- 
sion ; Colonel Morris, in General Barlow' s ; General 
Robert O. Tyler, who was chief of artillery in the Penin- 
sular campaign, commanded the brigade, of Avhich Por- 
ter's regiment formed the most effective part. To show 
the numerical superiority of these artillery regiments, 
let me say that one of them, with four of infantry, 
would make a full brigade ; while some brigades, com- 
posed entirely of infantry, required no less than twelve 
regiments. The gallant General Tyler was severely 
wounded in the action, and Porter would have suc- 
ceeded him in command on that field, had he lived.* 

* General Hancock said that Porter would have been promoted for gallant 
conduct, liad he lived. He surely would have well won the coveted star of a 
Brigadier-General, and added lustre to it. 



80 

All these commands were in tlie Second Army Corps 
of General Hancock. The mere mention of the names 
of these gallant officers, and of this brave corps, will 
recall some of the most heroic achievements of the 
war. 

At the opening of the ball, Colonel Morris, of the 
Seventh New York Artillery, carried the enemy's ritie- 
pits, captured two hundred and sixty prisoners and 
several pieces of artillery ; but not being supported in 
time was obliged to retreat, leaving his captured guns 
in their embrasures, but carrying off his prisoners. Tliis 
was a severe blow to us. Morris had gained the key of 
the position at the first onset, and he had been obliged 
to relinquish it. To this point the rebel forces now con- 
verged in great numbers, and the fire here was as close 
and deadly as the opposing masses could be packed 
together. Against this fire Porter was ordered to ad- 
vance. In response to it he made a brief address to his 
officers, who were summoned about him, telling them, 
"that it was almost certain death, but the duty must be 
performed." Then dismounting from his horse, he called 
out to his men, "Follow me, my brave boys ! I will lead 
3^ou !" and so, waving his sword, phinged into the ter- 
rible fire at the head of his command, and charged up 
to the enemy's lines. So noble and conspicuous an 
object could not fail to draw the fire of the rebel sharp- 



81 

shooters, as it had at Spottsylvania/^ He fell, j)ierced 
by a hnllet through his neck. Struggling to his feet, he 
again waved his s^Yord, to re-encourage his charging 
lines. Once more he fell, this time, among other fatal 
wounds, struck through the heart. But with wonderful 
vitality, he gathered himself up on his hands and knees, 
and died in that position, within a few hundred feet of 
tlie enemy's works. For two days he lay under the 
tire of those terrible antagonists. 

We lost upon and in the vicinity of that little patch 
of earth seven thousand men, in killed and wounded. 
A newspaper reporter, in describing the conflict, says, 
'' Six hundred of the Eighth Regiment of New York 
Artillery lay stretched ui3on the field of battle, "f And 

* There was something singularly commanding and officer-like in Porter's 
appearance after he entered the service — a seriousness, a sense of responsi- 
bility, that impressed itself upon his fine features. His figure was moulded in 
Nature's best proportions; his complexion so fair that it would have been almost 
effeminate, had not his features possessed every mark of masculine energy. His 
hair was light, his eyes gray ; his face suggested a perfect type of Saxon 
symmetry. The broad brow, the resolute chin, the delicately curved nostril, 
rivalled the best specimens of classic sculpture. It is to be regretted that no 
cast was taken from his face. This may seem the extravagant language of a too 
partial friend, to everybody except to those who knew him. 

f What the loss was cannot now be ascertained. An officer on General 
Tyler's staff. Lieutenant Pierre Van Cortlandt, in speaking of the battle of Cold 
Harbor, said, " I never saw such fighting. One regiment went in eighteen hun- 
dred strong, and came out with only six hundred. They went right up to the 
rebel works and commenced pulling out the abatis. The Colonel was killed, the 
Major wounded." When I asked him what regiment it was, he said, "the Eighth 
New York Artillery, Colonel Porter, of Niagara Falls." 
11 



82 

tliese men, with all tlie otlier men from otlier regiments 
on botli sides, rebel and Union, were, for the time, ex- 
posed to a cross-fire from either front. This is one of 
the terrible lessons of civil war ! 

It belongs also to the cruel history of this war to 
state, that Porter's own cousin, John C. Breckinridge, 
doubly bound to him by lineage and by marriage, com- 
manded the rebel forces in this fearful conflict. 

On the night of the second day, during a rain-storm, 
five men belonging to his regiment, "the sons of his 
friends and neighbors," whom he had promised "to 
account for, if alive," determined to rescue the remains 
of their beloved commander. They crawled as near to 
the enemy' s works as they dare go together ; then 
one, "holding his life in his hands," dragged himself 
through the mire to the body, "lying within five rods 
of the enemy's breastworks," tied a rope to the now 
useless sword-belt, and so, crawling back to the hollow 
where his companions were sheltered, drew him within 
reach of their affectionate hands. Crouching to the 
earth with their burden, they carried it a quarter of a 
mile farther, without drawing the fire of the enemy, and 
then placing it on a stretcher, bore it three miles through 
the night to the division hospital. 

I am happy to be able to record the names of these 
gallant fellows : Sergeant Le Roy Williams had charge 



83 

of the expedition ; tlie others were Galen S. Hicks, John 
Diitf, Walter Harwood, and Samuel Traviss. It woiild 
be a grateful task for ' ' The Century' ' to remember their 
gallant conduct by some slight memorial. Be it greater 
or less, it would not be forgotten by them,* 

The body of Colonel Porter, when examined, was 
found to be pierced with six bullets — two through the 
neck, one through the heart, one through the abdomen, 
and one through each thigh. His remains were inclosed 
in a coarse coffin, made from the rough boards of a Vir- 
ginia farm-house, by his faithful body-servant, John 
Heany, who had been with him during the coui'se of the 
war. From Cold Harbor they were taken to White 
House, Virginia, and there embalmed ; from thence to 
Baltimore, where they were met by a military escort, and, 
with the profoundest and most resjDectful observances, 
carried to the Episcopal church, in which he used to 
attend Divine service while on duty in that city. 

The rude coffin, enveloped in the dear old flag of his 

* " The Century" has acted upon this suggestion, and appointed a committee 
to prepare some suitable token, as a memorial of its affection, to be presented to 
these brave men. But since this action of the Chib, a new phase of the enter- 
prise has come to light. It seems that the faithful body-servant of Colonel 
Porter, who was authorized to act in such a contingency, offered a reward of one 
thousand dollars to any who would rescue his remains. These five men 
accomplished it, but would not accept the reward. "They would not touch it," 
said my informant. This places the action of these braves upon a still more 
conspicuous pedestal. 



84 

country, was ]jlaced in the cliancel. The funeral service 
was performed amid the most solemn and impressive 
silence. The body, after remaining all night in the chan- 
cel, was re-escorted to the cars on the following morning, 
a^"d then, in the care of friendly hands, carried toAvards 
his once happy home at Niagara Falls. A large con- 
course from the neighboring country attended the last 
ceremonies that closed his brief and beautiful career. 
The services at St. Peter's Church were conducted by 
Reverend Dr. Shelton, an Episcopal clergyman, who had 
before performed the same sad rites over the remains of 
his father, his mother, and his first wife. There was no 
military display — no ostentatious exhibition of public 
processions ; but the stores were quietly closed as a mark 
of respect, and scarcely a sound was heard in the hushed 
village except the solemn thunder of Niagara. After the 
impressive ceremonies of the Church were over, the con- 
course moved to Oakwood Cemetery, where the hero 
now rests, but not " alone in his glory.'' 

The proposed monument is to be a simple column of 
marble, crowned with the emblems of his faith and his 
patriotism — the cross and the flag. 

Fellow-members of "The Century!" in the perform- 
ance of the task allotted to me I have, thus far, placed 
only a bare and barren record of dates and facts before 
you ; but even the data relating to his life are so preg- 



85 

nant witli all that is noble, wise, self-denying, indicate 
such keenness of perception in matters of criticism, and 
yet so generous in appreciation, that he was, with great 
gifts, so modest ; as honest in purpose as he was patriotic 
in principle ; and as heroic in action as he was patriotic ; 
and so — dying as noWy as he had lived — how can the 
vast storehouse of language supply epithets for a formal 
eulogy that will rival his simple narrative ? And can 
Friendship even mourn over the close of so brilliant a 
career, when he, in the very fulness of his chivalric 
nature, surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, gave up 
his life for his country upon that heroic field ? Is it for 
us to rear the commemorative obelisk or to unveil the 
tributary urn of tears, in memory of him whose virtues 
need neither pedestal nor inscription ? Let us rather 
turn to the more immediate relations of his blameless 
life, with which many of us are not so familiar. 

His confidential friend and legal adviser, to whom I 
owe much of this brief history, says : ' ' He was a man 
of the clearest perceptions in matters of business, grasp- 
ing readily the most complicated affairs ; and of such 
sound judgment, that his conclusions were rarely incor- 
rect.'"' His promptness was remarkable ; he never made 
an appointment that he failed to keep. Once having de- 
cided any matter, he rarely found occasion to change his 
mind. He was exceedingly conscientious in his dealings 



86 

witli others. "Let ns do riglit," he said ; "though the 
law gives me an advantage, I will not avail myself of it." 
In the hard times of 1857 he voluntarily reduced the 
rents of his tenants. When his mortgages were unpaid 
and required foreclosing, his tirst inquiry was, are they 
honest, worthy, working men ? If they were, or if they 
had died, leaving widows or children, he always ascer- 
tained first the value of the improvements upon the 
propert}', as well as the payments they had made upon 
it, and generally paid the one and refunded the other." 
That such a course of conduct was justified by ordinary 
pecuniary laws we cannot admit ; but his executor 
says that "when his course of conduct was determined 
upon, he would take no other." His charities were like 
a rich placer, to be worked by the poor. To the friend- 
less he was a constant benefactor. He indeed fulfilled 
all the injunctions of the Apostle."^' 

"But to all this was added yet another and higher 
attribute. From his earliest boyhood, his reverence for 
sacred things was most profound and sincere. He 
spoke but little of such subjects, but his whole con- 
duct showed him to be a devoted and humble Chris- 
tian.''' His faith was as genuine as it was unobtrusive. 
It guided the whole course of his spotless life. To 

* 1st norinthians, xiii. 



87 

tliose who were witnesses only of Porter's intercourse 
with the foani-si^ray of society ; who merely knew 
him as a j^^^i't of that brilliant artificial life, of Avliich 
he was, upon all occasions, so conspicuous an orna- 
ment ; to tliose this statement will appear almost in- 
credible. But the contact of the world did not sully 
his pure character. Like the nobler metals, his nature 
could endure the fiery trial of the furnace, and run 
clear from the dross of the crucible. Ji was for many 
years his constant practice to acknowledge his obliga- 
tions to his Creator in humble prayer, in the midst of 
his family, and he became a member of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, in October, 1861, being confirmed 
at Geneva, by Bishop De Lancey. The last letter writ- 
ten from the front (and received after his death), con- 
tains these memorable words: "I try to think, and feel, 
and act as if each day were to be my last, so as not 
to go unprepared to God. We must hope, and pray, 
and believe. He will preserve me. Yet His will be 
done ! It is selfish to wish to be spared at the expense 
of others." 

I cannot more fitly close this brief biographical 
sketch of the earthly career of our dear departed friend, 
than by this extract from his will : 

" I, Peter Augustus Porter, being of sound mind, 
do declare this to be my last will and testament: 



88 

feeling, to its full extent, the probability that I may not 
return from the path of duty on which I have entered. 
If it please God that it be so, I can say, with trnth, that 
I have entered on the course of danger with no ambi- 
tious aspirations, nor with the idea that I am fitted by 
nature or experience to be of any important service to 
the Government; but in obedience to the call of duty, 
demanding every citizen to contribute wliat he could, in 
means, labor, or life, to sustain the Government of his 
country — a sacrifice made the more willingly by me when 
I consider how singularly benefited I have been by 
the institutions of the land, and that, up to this time, 
all the blessings of life have been showered upon me 
beyond what falls usually to the lot of man." 

And now, fellow-members — wliile tlie accents of his 
departing words still linger in your ears — let me re- 
tire. I have attempted to lay a garland upon his grave, 
and have brought no flowers so fresh and fragrant as 
those that were already there. I have attempted a 
eulogy, and find the voice of praise is hushed by attri- 
butes above all praise. Let me dedicate, however, these 
few leaves to his memory, for they come from what 
he prized above all earthly things — the hand and heart 

of a friend. 
L.ofC. 



BINDERY 



